Acromion Division Sit Start

The sit-start is being added by request and to eliminate any confusion as to where it starts.

Acromion Division is a striking line that most (the few and the proud who frequent CA) who manage to straggle and venture into Southie have walked past for years, as it is both awe inspiring and chiseled (a figure of speech), and its most obvious feature is that it is larger than life. The sit start adds a few extra moves and a little difficulty to the stand start.

A sit-start also goes at V8, adding 3-4 moves on poor feet but solid rock. There are two loose hand holds right after the sit start. They look like they are going to break, but stay in place like a puzzle piece... so don't pull on or loosen them as they likely might fracture the other starting holds which are solid. The sit uses gaston/pinch and the right on a vertical pocket, cross into the pinch-der-cling and move into the stand start. See the route topo-overlay for specifics.

The location is on the southeast corner of On The Ebb Tide of Death.

A sit also goes at V8, adding 3-4 moves on poor feet, but solid rock. There are two loose hand holds right after the sit start. They look like they are going to break but stay in place like a puzzle piece... so don't pull on or loosen them as they likely might fracture the other starting holds which are solid. The sit start uses a left hand gaston/pinch and your right hand on a vertical pocket, cross into the pinch-der-cling and move into the stand start. See the route topo-overlay for specifics. Rely on you Acromion and Shoulder Girdle to nail a small fin crimp, and then move into the stand start of (nail the left pinch fin with the left, hit the right fin jug) and hold on until the top. Sticking to the arete is imperative to appreciate the moves on this beauty.

The descent route is a dirty, 22 foot, V1+ slab seven feet to the left of the arete or downclimbing to the finishing hueco two feet below and to the left of the arete lip and dropping down onto pads.

See the topo overlay in the pictures section for starting holds. Also see the photo and video posted in the comments section submitted by

Aaron Bell-Butterfield

for the sit-start beta.

This route requires 3~ pads and for the crux of the arete, a very attentive spotter. Making the cross to the bad sloper before going to the better sloper, which signifies the end of the business will send you off explosively....as will making the delicately powerful and off balance crimp moves preceding the slopers.